Governance

European Schoolnet is governed by the Ministries of Education who are full members of the organisation.

Statutory bodies

Ministries represent the decision-making body of European Schoolnet through a number of groups, namely:

the Steering Committee, for the political and strategic orientations of European Schoolnet. It adopts the work programme and the budget of the organization;

the Board of Directors for administrative and financial operations.

“More than ever education is challenged to improve results while budgets stay the same, or even shrink. This calls upon us to look for new ways of learning. We know by now that ICT helps to develop each talent of every student and to increase flexibility and efficiency in the educational system. We need to work together to make sure this knowledge is set into action. European Schoolnet is the network to exchange knowledge about and to explore new ways of integrating ICT in education. This is why we are happy to participate.”

Toine Maes, Kennisnet, the Netherlands

Subcommittees

Policy and innovation committee Activities are linked to the three areas of the work programme supporting policy, research and innovation. The Policy and Innovation Committee (PIC) is open to all members of the Steering Committee and acts as a forum to discuss policy, research and innovation topics identified by the Steering Committee not covered by the Working Groups, for example e-books and digital games in 2010. PIC meets up to three times a year and members are invited to bring an expert on the subject to the meeting.

Learning resource exchange subcomittee Established in May 2010, this committee steers and manages the ongoing development of the Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) service for schools.

Working groups

Working groups are set up by a group of Ministries of Education to tackle a specific issue. The remit and duration are defined by the ministries involved.

1. Inticators Working Group

Description: What are precisely the issues covered by indicators built on existing national and international data collections about the use of technology in education? Which ones can be used for comparison between countries, and which ones could be adjusted to permit such comparison? And more importantly, what are the new indicators current missing which would enable us to properly monitor the recent and most promising technology-enhanced and innovative developments we are interested in?

These are the core questions discussed since June 2016 by around 20 national experts, supported by researchers from FBK-IRVAPP (the Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies) and European Schoolnet’s Knowledge Team. The result of this work, grounded in the analysis of existing survey questionnaires, will be shared in a state of the art report expected to be published in the summer of 2017, also proposing new indicators to be developed.

Description: The Interactive Classroom Working Group (ICWG) allows policy makers to explore common areas of concern, share experience, and address policy challenges related to the integration of a wide range of technologies in classrooms and their impact on teaching and learning. In 2016-2017, the ICWG is particularly focusing on different approaches to personalising learning that will include: developing guidelines on adapting learning spaces in schools; and creating short learning activities for teachers interested in personalising learning. In April 2017, the ICWG will also publish BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) technical guidelines as a follow up to the BYOD guide for school leaders that was published in 2015. Currently 8 countries are involved, and the working group is also open to regional education authorities.

Description: The STEM Working Group is a platform of discussion and exchange for ministries of educa-tion regarding their STEM education policies. The overall objective of this initiative is to help lay the foundations for medium and long-term strategies and activities between ministries of education and European Schoolnet in the field of STEM education, following an agenda that addresses the ministries’ priorities and main interests. The working group is coordinated by European Schoolnet and supported by Scientix, the community for science education in Eu-rope. The members of the working group are appointed by the ministries of education directly. The Group was launched in Eminent 2015, with the first meeting taking place in March 2016. 18 Ministries of Education are represented.